An old high school friend passed on a link today about smartphone autocorrects. Rightly so, he asks the question about why this happens so frequently on Apple products when they at the company have the means and opportunity to correct it. What he has not possibly considered is what this indicates about our rhetoric and the character of civilized cultures.
If you have not already seen the list of these, don't go looking for it. At least 90% of them are suggestive and/or vulgar. What it indicates to me is what these people largely discuss via smartphone: things of a suggestive nature, or in the case of the other 10% that the phone guesses randomly because it has no idea quite frankly what some of these gross spelling errors ought to be. Apparently, they believe that anonymity of their phones protects them to say whatever they like. They are incorrect.
Especially with smart phones, the phones remember everything you type. Moreover, the government monitors all electronic communication, so all anyone really needs to do to embarass you is obtain a transcript of your texts. I know this can be done because I know a few parents who monitor their children's text messaging this way. Your cell provider is required by law to keep them, and if you are a minor, your parents can access your texts if you're under their plan. Bazinga! I used to not actually buy new phones, partially because I hate extending my contract into perpetuity, but when I received one from a friend that guessed words I would never text let alone say, I realized I needed my own phone so that it would not have learned bad behavior. Your phone, after all, guesses in part based on your prior syntax.
Assuming of course that any of these are real, it indicates a problem with the English tongue. I am not sure how you arrive at some of them since the intended word is nowhere near the spelling of the guessed word. Perhaps it is an indication that nobody knows how to spell. My worst score was always in spelling (71% compared to ~95% in other subjects), but some of these errors are not ones I could see myself making let alone ones that would be common enough to lead to such eggregious auto correct faux pas.
Most of what we know about famous people is what has been written about them. If what you have written about yourself is vulgar or illiterate, what kind of a message does that leave for your posterity? What kind of example? Back when I first saw My Fair Lady, I was offended at the notion that English almost entirely disappears in America because we do not use it, but the writer is correct- we don't. We bastardize our own tongue and confuse people with what we mean and then laugh when our errors are corrected by our phones into vulgarity.
If we elevated our speech, these kinds of errors would be few if any. If we elevated our characters, not only would the errors disappear, but anyone perpetuating them would be fit for scorn. While we worry about the stock market and the housing market and the elections, the thing about which we ought to worry most is our character. Wrote the Baron von Montesquieu that when virtue ceases the Republic will die. It is probably only due to the virtuous among us that America hasn't already been torn asunder by the wolfish nations that eagerly await our ultimate demise.
Whatever you decide to do about your own conversation, I exhort you to not pass on these posts at least. At best, do not laugh at them; condemn them. They are errors, not only in rhetoric, but also in character. Flippancy is not humor; it is the least like real laughter because it brings no joy. It makes light of things that are precious where they ought to be defended and tended by those of us in a position to speak out for and endorse what is good and brave and true. What we discuss tells us much about the nature of our civilized society, and until we change it, perhaps the barbarians are right. They sacked Rome when she grew lascivious, because Rome was more barbarous than the Vandals. Think about that for a minute, and then rethink what you type. It will be around for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment